


Red Flower

by WandererRiha



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Can we fix it? Yes we can!, F/M, Gen, I can Fix It!, Mio deserved better, everyone lives dammit, let them be happy, no beta we die like men, precious children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 04:59:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18242864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WandererRiha/pseuds/WandererRiha
Summary: Mio's life is spared, and a new garden begun.





	Red Flower

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to and including episode 12.

It’s the first thing he’s heard that doesn’t hurt. In his mind, that’s what she is: a beautiful song. Beautiful, yet sad. So sad. He’s not even sure how he knows this, but even he- a man who’s been deaf all his life till now- can tell that she’s unhappy. No one in this world is, but this hurts. _She_ hurts. He doesn’t like it.

It’s a strange thing to hear his own name: Hyakkimaru. He can write it, but had never known how the characters were supposed to sound. Hyakkimaru. Monster Boy. He smiles a little, and Dororo immediately comments on it. His speech is so rapid Hyakkimaru can’t always follow it, but he doesn’t mind listening. Perhaps the gibberish will make sense if he listens long enough.

The world is full of sound. Wind, rain, river, trees, birds, animals, and people. People never shut up! Everyone is always talking, talking, talking till he’s certain he’ll go mad with the sheer noise. Dororo scolds him. He doesn’t know what he’s saying, but he knows what the words are supposed to mean. How can he explain that it’s all so LOUD? It’s just too much.

It takes time- days, weeks- before the noise begins to fade, and he builds up a tolerance to the constant influx of information. The sounds of wind and water fade to the background. So too do the chirp of birds and softer noises of animals. The talking, however, remains difficult to ignore. He wishes he could try the words for himself, but his voice was stolen along with so many other things on the day he was born. He tries to form the words with his mouth, just to practice. With any luck, he’ll be able to speak one day.

He can tell the children apart now. Each voice has a name. Each name has a child, a personality, a bright spark of light and mischief much like Dororo. They are not afraid of him, and because of that, he loves them. The older boys want to learn to fight, so he tries to teach them. It isn’t easy. Dororo calls what he assumes is commentary. In return, they teach him words. Oh so many words. Words enough to fill the ocean, it seems.

Sword. Temple. Bowl. Chopsticks. Hoe. Scythe. Pitchfork. Fire- don’t touch! Sky. Earth. Grass. Rice. Flower. Water. On and on and on and on. He will never be able to remember it all, but he tries. He learned to fight without sight or sound. He will learn this too.

“You won’t catch many demons this way,” Biwamaru tells him in that gentle, scolding tone of his. “But then, you might just snatch some happiness for yourself. For a little while, anyway.”

Hyakkimaru looks up and turns in his direction.

“We must all take what happiness we can find. Sometimes, we must make it for ourselves.” He pauses, the white light of his soul moving as if looking around. Biwamaru is blind too, but that doesn’t mean he can’t see in his own way.

“I think a man could find happiness here, don’t you?”

Hyakkimaru hasn’t any idea what any of that meant. He only understands about one word in three. All he knows is he wants to go on listening to Mio’s song, to be surrounded by people who aren’t terrified of him, to do things that don’t require a sword. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows he can’t stay. Not forever, not yet. But maybe when he’s slain the demons, when he’s a whole man, he’ll come back. He’ll come back, and learn what Mio’s voice looks like.

\--

“Alright, I won’t go.”

Dororo sighs with relief. “Good. You don’t want those jerks thinking you’re a spy or something.”

Mio smiles for him, sad yet kind. “Will you watch the other children until I get back?”

He snaps to and salutes. “You can count on me!”

The night passes. He dozes off once or twice. Off in the corner, Hyakkimaru lies silent. Dororo’s pretty sure he’s asleep, but it’s hard to tell.

Dawn comes, bringing Mio home safe. Dororo meets her halfway down the stairs. Hyakkimaru, still unsteady on his real leg, waits at the top. The other kids aren’t up yet, only Take is awake and busy starting chores.

Mio pulls a pouch from her kimono. “Look, boys! Look what the soldiers gave me in payment!”

Dororo’s eyes grow wide. “Wow! Rice seed! You better stash that someplace safe!”

Mio tucks it back into her kimono. “I will.”

“You shouldn’t hide it any place around here,” Biwamaru observes. Dororo jumps. The old monk is almost as bad as Hyakkimaru when it comes to sneaking up on you. “The soldiers will move soon. Might be a good time to start preparing that rice paddy you’ve been talking about.”

Worry creases Mio’s gentle face. “Yes. We should go. Help everyone pack up. We’re moving to our new home.”

\--

Hyakkimaru isn’t the most coordinated person around- chopsticks are fiddly with prosthetic hands- but he’s strong. He can carry a load without issue. Mio and the children weigh him down, and he smiles a little at their gasps of awe when he stands. They’ve laid a lot in the pack on his shoulders, but he still lifts it easily. He hadn’t thought they’d have this much to take with them.

Dororo tells him later that Hana, Seiji, and Chiyo were all piled in the pack.

There’s no structure in place, no existing temple to shelter in. That’s alright. They’ll make do. The antlion and its burrow are gone. The soil is perfect for rice, or so Biwamaru says. Still, it will take time before they can prepare the land and plant the precious seed rice.

He doesn’t hear Mio sing, but she does laugh. That makes more than makes up for it. He knows she only sings that song when she’s sad, but he still misses it. If she’s happy, well, he can learn to live without her song. Besides, she talks to him much the way Dororo does. She asks him things even though he cannot answer. He tries, and like Dororo, she seems to understand.

“I’m not afraid of these hands,” she tells him. “They’re so gentle.”

Hyakkimaru isn’t sure he agrees. There are swords hidden beneath the wooden hands his father made for him. His hands are not gentle, they are covered in blood. Perhaps because they are not real, she does not fear them. He’s ignorant, but not stupid, and he knows where she goes and what she does at night. (Dororo, for all his other virtues, isn’t much at keeping a secret.) If he gets his hands back, perhaps she will become afraid of him too. It’s almost enough to make him stay put.

He and Dororo stay long enough to help erect a hut, to help prepare the beginnings or the rice paddy. When Biwamaru wanders off, they hang about just one more day before departing.

“You’ll come back to us, won’t you?” Mio asks.

He nods. He’s seen the bright lights of their souls make the gesture. He cannot see her smile, but he can feel it. She pulls on his arm, taking his hand.

“Good. I’m glad. We’ll work extra hard so that we can serve rice to you when you return.”

She leans and touches her lips to his cheek. For a moment, he cannot breathe. The children scream and laugh, shattering the moment.

“Ewwwww gross!” Dororo gags. “Alright, cut the mushy stuff! C’mon, we got demons to hunt.”

\--

They get help with the crab monster. There’s something weirdly familiar about the young lord who had the idea to engineer a series of locks and dams. It would have been a lot harder to fight the thing underwater. At least he’s polite. This isn’t the first time they’ve been thanked, but he can count those instances on one hand. It will remain to be seen if they get thrown out or not.

Dororo is right. White rice _is_ good. He almost understands the play. He likes the music. Music is good. Lord Daigo must be pretty important. Evidently that young lord Tahomaru is his son. Lord Daigo is his father-- and Hyakkimaru’s. They are brothers. Like brothers, they fight.

Hyakkimaru feels bad about Tahomaru’s eye, but at least he managed to avoid killing him. And he got to meet his mother, so there’s that. Their father, however, is kind of an asshole. It doesn’t matter. He already has a father. Dr. Jukai is the best dad anyone could ever ask for. Now he has a mama and a brother to go with, so that’s nice.

“It isn’t right, what my father did,” Tahomaru tells him later. “But what can we do? The demons must feed off your body if the land is to be spared.”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a deal to me if you’ve got to recruit demons to protect your land,” Dororo grumbles. “Sure _you_ may have rice, but nobody else does. Demons destroy, they don’t protect. How long do you really think things will stay this way?”

“I will be Lord after my father…” Tahomaru pauses. “Well, actually, I guess you will be. You’re the eldest. Do you know anything about ruling a kingdom?”

“No,” Hyakkimaru admits. “You do it.”

Surprisingly, Tahomaru laughs. “Well if you’re not interested in your inheritance, I’m not going to argue!”

“Man, it’s not fair,” Dororo sighs. “You guys get along so well, and your mama’s so nice! Old Daigo should be the one suffering, not you guys.”

A spark of understanding passes between Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru. They know what they need to do. The only question is how.

Dororo glances between them, confused. “Wait, what’d I miss?”

“I can’t…” Tahomaru begins. “He’s...he’s my father. Yes he’s done terrible things but he loves me! I mean, I _think_ he loves me… At least, I’m important to him as his heir.”

“He loves you,” Hyakkimaru echos. “Not me. I’ll do it.”

Dororo is lost. “Do what?”

“Get my body back.”

\--

What with one thing and another, it’s a while before they return to Mio’s farm. Things must be going well, he can hear laughter even before they begin to climb the hill. There are no soldiers, no camp, just wild things coming and going undisturbed by men. He has an eye now, and an arm. He wants to see Mio’s face, wants to hold her hand. He doesn’t hear her song, but he hears her laughter and that’s so much better.

“Dororo! Hyakkimaru!” A cheer goes up like fireworks as the children rush toward them. He can see their sticky faces, their dirty hands, and he crouches down to hug them with his new arm. They laugh and scream, pull and pinch, and he could cry for joy at their shrill voices stabbing his ears again. They’ve gotten bigger, but they’re still so small. Soon they will have rice to eat, thanks to Mio.

“Hyakkimaru!”

There she is. He stands and stares, just looks and looks, drinking in the sight of her. Her hair is tied back, but many strands have escaped to fall around her face. Her eyes are gentle, her smile warm. She’s got a sack apron tied over her tattered kimono. He didn’t remember her being so plump. He blinks, trying to focus with his false eye.

Wait.

There are two souls.

_Oh._

For a moment, he isn’t sure what to think. Has she had to keep up her work? Has she found a husband? Then she takes his hand with hers, and his doubts tumble out his ears.

“Hyakkimaru,” she says, smiling even as her eyes spill over. “I’ve missed your gentle hands.”

He swallows hard and feels his lips stretch into a smile. She doesn’t mind. Good. This is good. He thinks.

“Whoa, you’re gonna be a mama!” Dororo exclaims. “Where’s it’s papa?”

Mio fidgets where she stands, both hands moving to cradle her belly. Her mouth moves but no sound comes out.

“Right here.”

Everyone turns and looks at him. Hyakkimaru is as much surprised by his own words as everyone else.

“The papa is right here.”

\--

“You know that kid’s not yours,” Dororo tells him later as they catch some fish for dinner. “I’m pretty sure you two didn’t sneak off to the woods or something while my back was turned. It’s gotta be from one of the soldiers.” He shudders. “ _Gross!_ ”

“Mio is the mama,” Hyakkimaru says, watching the reflection of the sun on the water. “I want to be the papa.”

“Really? It doesn’t bother you that it’s not yours?”

He shrugs. “I won’t throw him away. I won’t send him down the river. I want him to know love.”

Beside him, Dororo grins and throws his arms around him. “Awwww, bro! Never knew you were such a softie!”

Dororo smiles and lifts his hand- his real hand- to scruff Dororo’s hair. It’s surprisingly soft.

“Only to little monster boys.”


End file.
